R.I.P. Josh Jones of Gaming World Wide

Have you ever known a person that you’d definitely call a friend, but you’ve never even met in person? I realize in this day and age of social media, “friends” are categorized as people you come in contact with that share some of your interests and every so often hit a “like” button, or make a comment on your Facebook page. But to me, there was more to this man I’d never met. His name was Josh Jones, and I’d always planned to someday meet him in person. Yet, I learned that he just recently passed away at the age of 34 from complications due to a torn aorta valve.

Josh not only had a passion for video games--he was genuine. Years ago, he contacted me and was excited to contribute articles and interviews to the VGEvo/Retroids website. He told me time and time again that he was encouraged when his articles showed up there and it was where he got his start. But this wouldn’t be Josh’s only contributions; more important developments were in the works.

Josh went on to do bigger and better things. He went out of his way to help people through charitable causes. He was one of the main founders of an organization to help others through video games called Gaming World Wide (GWW). Its goal was to unite gamers that sought to help others by performing positive acts for society and the gaming community. Through GWW, he was able to raise funds for the American Cancer Society, team up with the Able Gamers foundation to help gamers with disabilities, buy a PS4 for a kid that gave up his PS4 to help others, support indie projects, write about extraordinary gamers on the GWW website and much more. We were always happy to collaborate with GWW for events and support them in their efforts.

In addition to this, Josh was an ambassador for Recordsetter.com, a world record website. He would often help organize and officiate events for setting video game world records.

We had often talked about meeting up either at some event or to visit somewhere that had some great grub nearby. Josh would often jokingly brag about how he could just whip up the best meal ever, and I was so looking forward to a time when that would happen. Yet, he was taken from this earth at a very young age and the one regret I’ll have is that I never got to meet him in person. His legacy will live on -- He sought to unite video game players by encouraging positive acts to help others. He did that, and changed lives for the better.

I’ll miss you, Josh. Thanks for all you did to bless the video game community.

There is a GoFundMe page set up for his family. Please help donate to his family in this difficult time, as they deal with the loss of their loved one: